New CDA director sees city's potential

Upon reading that Kathy Hendrickson was retiring from her job as Port Jervis Community Development Agency director, Valerie Maginsky scrutinized her own credentials. Did she have what the city needs?

Jessica Cohen

Upon reading that Kathy Hendrickson was retiring from her job as Port Jervis Community Development Agency director, Valerie Maginsky scrutinized her own credentials. Did she have what the city needs?

Last week, the CDA hiring committee decided she does.

Maginsky grew up in Sparrowbush, daughter of the Port Jervis Middle School art teacher. She majored in international relations, minored in economics at SUNY New Palz, so she could work with businesses, "expanding their global reach," which she did for Fair-Rite, an electronics company in Wallkill.

She traveled back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean for them for seven years, then came home and made a business of homes — real estate sales, mortgages and inspections. And she worked for the not-for-profit Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrows, helping people turn ideas into businesses. In her spare time she co-founded Citizens for Our Healthy Community and Empowering Port Jervis community center and led the city's drug task force, Operation P.J. Pride.

The CDA hired Maginsky last week to work 19 hours a week, working all day Wednesday, then flexibly as needed. Hendrickson will work with her until the end of March, and the office will be open Monday-Friday, from 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

"I'm just getting used to the idea," Maginsky said. "I've been in the office a day and a half."

At the CDA, Maginsky will be repurposing skills from her past, assisting people in starting new businesses and helping established businesses "better position themselves for future growth."

As she gets to know the tools for her new task, she finds that low-cost loans are available for businesses and also for homeowners whose houses need repairs — the leaky roof, the broken furnace.

"Part of the challenge is to get the word out," Maginsky said. "The CDA is there to help with financing packages for businesses. Loans can be sourced through the CDA, and the CDA can also be the sole financing source to start a business. The entrepreneur must have collateral, and the CDA can be a contributor. To do that, the entrepreneur needs a business plan the CDA committee would review for viability."

Maginsky said she looks forward to "continuing work Kathy Hendrickson has been doing for 30 years," lately getting grants for a whitewater park, sidewalks and tree planting.

As for her other community roles, with Operation P.J. Pride, COHC and Empowering Port Jervis, she said, "We've handed leadership off as needed. But I plan to continue to work on the drug issue, and Empowering Port Jervis is near to my heart."

She said she sees directing the CDA as providing another avenue toward the goals of those organizations.

"The whole point is to help Port Jervis get on its feet," she said.

In this effort she thinks of her father finding potential in unpredictable places. She recalls him pulling their car to the side of the road, where he saw a sturdy piece of rope.

"He'd say, 'This has potential!' I see Port Jervis as having potential," Maginsky said.

The Tri-State Chamber of Commerce invites the public to join its weekly radio forum, "Chamber Matters," broadcast at 8 a.m. Saturday on Neversink Media Group Stations 106.9FM-1450AM WYNY and 107.7FM-1490AM WDLC. Maginsky and Hendrickson, new and outgoing CDA directors respectively, will talk with Charlene Trotter, Tri-State Chamber of Commerce executive director, and Nelson Page, Majestic Theater co-owner.